


it was really nothing

by kiual



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Angst, M/M, Teikou Era, akashi is messed up and so is midorima, maybe???, split personality akashi but not the canon version
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-25
Updated: 2014-01-25
Packaged: 2018-01-09 23:54:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1152328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiual/pseuds/kiual
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The rain falls hard on a humdrum town,<br/>This town has dragged you down."</p><p>Midorima is the only one who can get through to Akashi on those days.</p>
            </blockquote>





	it was really nothing

**Author's Note:**

> Hatful of Hollow is basically an album dedicated to akamido I can't see it any other way.

The calls were now frequent enough that Midorima could pick out the regular patterns and predict when he would next be summoned.

Akashi's father's voice was deep and rough, and his words were always forced and laced with embarrassment. He was Seijuurou’s father, and had gotten this far raising him alone. To call for help from a middle school aged boy (though he couldn’t deny that the Midorima boy was certainly mature in mind and actions) was admitting defeat. Members of the Akashi family were not adept with handling any defeat, even of the smallest trivial kind.

Midorima understood the man's need for a connection with his son, and so had allowed the older Akashi to venture out into the woods on the edge of Kyoto alone on the first few occasions. Each and every one of these times the man had left the cover of the trees alone and without progress. Midorima would then step in.

After the number of failures began to increase, the man finally accepted Midorima's offer for help, and one quick phone call became sufficient for letting the boy know when he was needed. Midorima would often be on the train before his chiming ringtone began, as his instincts kicked in and he felt that something would be wrong that day. He checked the weather every morning already, but now that he had been given duty over Akashi, he started to unconsciously draw his eyes over to the Kyoto section of the map. Whenever heavy rain was predicted, Midorima made sure to keep extra change in his pockets and stay close to the train station.

He never fully understood Akashi's reasoning behind his episodes. He would be dining with his father, civilised conversation drifting across the table over their meal. The next second his chair would be scraping across the solid wooden floor, and he would be out of the front door before his father could move. His reflexes gained from basketball made his escapes almost impossible to intercept, but he never strayed from the one area of forest outside of Kyoto after leaving the house. The words of his father, whom he had been raised by alone since he was a very young child, had no effect. The only way to get him out of the woods and back into his own mind was through Midorima.

It wasn't as simple as Midorima giving Akashi a quick lecture telling him to go home before he worried his father too much. Akashi liked to talk when he was in this state, and Midorima was, apparently, the only one who would listen and talk back.

"It's this place. This city. I hate everything about it. The people and the houses and the bright sunlight. It's... Too much. Why can't anyone else feel this around here? It isn't right."

"The rain, Shintarou. How can you not feel safer when it's like this? I can't see past the end of my nose, and my hair will surely be dripping when I get back home. My uniform is wrecked. And no one else is around. It's incredible."

"I love this, Shintarou. I love us out here in the rain with the trees and the darkness. No lights, no family. No smiling strangers or basketball teammates. Just us. I love you, Shintarou, you know that? Yes, I love you."

"Move a little closer, I can't see your eyes properly. Ah, yes. That's it. Now pass me your glasses- Just do it, Shintarou. You cannot see through the rain anyway; resisting is futile, now pass me the glasses. Beautiful."

Midorima wasn't sure how he felt about Akashi's affections. When the curtains of rain dropped and they finally left the woods, Akashi would no longer look at Midorima with wide eyes and make comments marveling at his beauty. He was a colder, more reserved boy than on those occasions. 

And wasn't _that_ ironic. When he lost his mind, he was pleasant and loving, amazed by beauty and found solace in being secluded from the rest of the world. Put him back into his regular life, and he was unpleasant, and carried himself with a constant aura emanating fear.

Akashi had kissed Midorima a total of five times, each on a different occasion out in the night, while the rain poured down and his father stood at the edge of the line of trees waiting for his son to emerge. 

It made Midorima feel cruel and dirty, getting so close to Akashi when they were so young and the other wasn't in his right mind. But then a pale face would be moving towards his own, glasses already thrown into the long grass and momentarily lost. A red eye would show deep emotion as it moved forwards, and a golden one would catch the moonlight peeking out behind the thick grey clouds above. That eye looked almost dead.

Akashi would push fowards, always trying to deepen the kiss. Their uniforms would be soaked, their hair plastered to their heads and losing the bright colours that usually marked them out from the crowds. Then he would push Midorima down, mud streaking the back of his white blazer and messing up his hair even further. Akashi would smile softly. Their lips would meet again, and then Midorima would push the other boy away.

Midorima didn't love the Akashi who walked into Teikou each morning with a glare specially saved for anyone who walked into his path. He didn't love the basketball player who would knock a teammate to the ground and completely crush an opponent just for the entertainment. He loved the vulnerability of the boy soaked through from the falling rain out in the forests on the edge of Kyoto. He loved how the barriers finally came down, revealing the real motives behind Akashi's actions (though they were disturbed Midorima, it was fascinating).

And he knew whenever he saw Akashi's silhouette surrounded by the sheets of rain, and the towering trees curling their branches over his head, that this was the boy he loved. When he took advantage of the boy like this, he was no better than the regular Akashi with his bout of cruel words and fearful actions. When he read Akashi like an open book and used him for affection, he wished he could feel remorse.

Akashi’s father stopped waiting outside the trees for the two boys. Akashi in turn stopped talking to father unless it was absolutely necessary. 

“I won’t be going to the same high school as you, Shintarou. And I would appreciate it if you stopped answering those calls. Don’t come here for me again. We’re going to be enemies. Come back here when you defeat me.”

It had stopped raining already, but they remained beneath the cover of the trees, watching the clouds moving in the strong breeze to reveal the moon, almost completely full in the dark sky.

“A waxing gibbous,” Akashi murmured. Midorima nodded.

They sat for another half hour, bodies side by side but carefully placed so as not to be touching. Akashi then stood without word, willingly for the first time. 

“I’d appreciate it if you tried hard in the years to come. I want to see you up at the top, Shintarou. I do want you to defeat me, but your abilities alone will determine whether this will happen or not.”

Akashi walked away, the tree cover thinning out and allowing him to be doused in moonlight. His small body cast a shadow that ran almost all the way up to where Midorima remained sitting in the grass. 

Midorima’s eyes stayed transfixed on the empty spot beside him. He couldn’t help but twitch his mouth into a smile as the shadow faded. Akashi was finally gone.


End file.
